"Your Daily Tripod" reflects the personal Fourth Day journeys of its authors and editors. We are happy to have companions like you share in this project. Our prayer is that these reflections will invite and inspire your Fourth Day journey of Piety, Study and Action as much as writing or editing them inspires our journey and brings us all close moments with Jesus and our neighbors.

Saturday, March 08, 2014

Leaving Everything Behind

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

If
you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall
rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched
land.He will renew your strength, and
you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails.Isaiah 58:10-11

Jesus
saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.He said to him, “Follow me.”And leaving everything behind, he got up and
followed him.Luke 5:27-28

Piety

Prayer for Detachment

I beg of you, my Lord,
to remove anything which separates
me from you, and you from me.

Cast from me every evil
that stands in the way of my seeing you,
hearing, tasting, savoring, and touching you;
fearing and being mindful of you;
knowing, trusting, loving, and possessing you;
being conscious of your presence

and, as far as may be, enjoying you.
This is what I ask for myself
and earnestly desire from you. Amen.

Ever wonder how Luke would write his Gospel today?How could he envision our society with complete
detachment from material possessions?That
does happen.We have a tendency to think
it is related to religious communities where this is the exception rather than
the rule.

It also happens in nursing homes. Over the years, we go
through phases of hunting for bargains and gathering material possessions.But the longer we live, the less we realize
that those offer any solace or succor or sustenance.It might be nice to have those pictures
hanging on the walls, the nice car in front of the house, or a closet filled
with clothes, shoes, and dresses.It
might be nice to head to the fancy restaurant but simple meals of soup,
vegetables and fish served people quite well for most of our history.

Isaiah tells us that there is a different way.Bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy
the afflicted, not ourselves.And the
tax collector and some local fisherman shows that complete detachment can be
done.

Action

Complete detachment can be done but it may not be
easy.But can you take it in small
steps.What is one material item you can
eliminate from your possession this week?